If Only For The Moment
by KrackerLoop
Summary: Ricken has recently joined the Shepherds, after saving Maribelle during a mission he wasn't supposed to be a part of. Finally achieving his dream, he goes in excited. But he could have never expected the true trials he would face in the coming days. Will he be able to stand the coming battles, or will he fail when he's most needed.
1. Welcome To The Shepherds

If Only For The Moment

Chapter One: Welcome To The Shepherds

Ricken's legs carried him as quickly as they would allow him towards the Shepherds barracks. Today was his first day, his orientation as it were. He'd be properly introduced to each member of the Shepherds, some of which of course he had already had the pleasure of meeting beforehand. Chrom of course, the man who Ricken idolized and strived to be. He also had met Vaike on the occasion when he and Chrom would spare by the castles training field. Besides that, he knew Chrom's sister, Lissa, who if he recalled would be the youngest of the shepherds besides him at this point.

There was of course one other individual that Ricken had only ever gotten a good look at once. The shepherds new tactician. She had her robes hood up the first time they had passively met, when Ricken had begged Chrom to allow him to join them. The second time was during the rescue mission to save Maribelle. From what he had gathered, her name was Robin, and she was blinded in her right eye, obvious by the eyepatch she wore over it. She had short, curly brown hair, and she wasn't all that much taller than Ricken himself. He supposed she was about as old Chrom, but her height had made Ricken question that at first.

He cleared his mind of the thoughts of all that for the moment, as he held to his large mages hat, a small cut piece of bread held in his mouth as he ran for the barracks. His robes didn't make the task any easier, due to his height he could on occasion trip over them. He was finally nearing the front door, just as he had spent the last bit of his breath, only to hear the welcoming voice from Lissa, who appeared to have been waiting for him.

"Hey, Ricken! It took you long enough, I was starting to get bored standing around waiting for you. You know the others have been waiting to meet you!"

Lissa was a short woman, her dirty blonde hair was done up with an ornamental headpiece so that two large clamped together strands of it were pulled off to either side of her head. Besides that she had on her usual bright yellow dress. Not a very combat oriented article of clothing, but Lissa was a Cleric after all. It's not like she was supposed to be in the middle of the battle, unless someone was at her side to cover for her. She had only a bit of height over Ricken, and from what he could imagine, she wasn't but at most two or three years older than him.

He realized he had stopped, and was staring with bread still held between his teeth, preventing him from giving a comprehensible response. He pulled the bread from his mouth, letting out a soft sigh. He had hoped that Chrom would have been the one to give him the tour of the Barracks. Not that it really mattered, after all the army would soon be mobilizing the following day, in order to take Emmeryn to a safer location that was hidden away somewhere in the mountain range. Ricken wasn't among those who knew exactly where the place was, but he had the general idea by the trails that were mapped for them the day before.

"S-sorry Lissa, I was so excited last night…. I didn't really get to sleep until really late," He felt embarrassed that he was already making mistakes on his first day in.

"Don't worry about it Ricken, it's not like you were late for anything important. You're just touring the barracks, and meeting everyone. No need to stress just yet," During her rambling comforting attempt, Lissa had made several random motions with her arms, seemingly in high spirits. It comforted Ricke a little, knowing at least that Lissa would be a lot more forgiving of Ricken for any mistakes he might make.

"Yeah, you're right. I just didn't want to start making mistakes on my first day, Chrom wouldn't be very appreciative-" He was cut off by Lissa, who put a finger on his lips in a clear show that she wasn't very conscious of personal space.

"Oh, hush up. Chrom wouldn't have cared anymore than I had. You're worrying over nothing." Ricken was a bit surprised that Lissa was trying to be so reassuring, though he very much appreciated it. He smiled politely and gave her a courtesy node, which she replied with by standing in a triumphant pose. "Alright then, ready to head in?" Ricken held no more hesitation, feeling only excitement inside now.

"Yes, I'm ready." Lissa gave him a cheeky grin before turning, and pushing the large metal door open.


	2. Meeting The Group

Chapter Two: Meeting the group

As the metal door flew open, a loud yell of panic sounded with momentum passed the doorway, and to both Lissa and Ricken's surprise, they watched as a man was flung to the ground, face first, and skidded slowly to a halt.

"You're still not giving it your all Stahl!," A woman in red armor was staring agitatingly at the crippled pile she was addressing. Her hair was cut short, a bit brighter shade of the same red that her armor was. Ricken stared at her with awe. Considering her smaller frame and height, he would have never thought in his life that she would have been able to launch a man in a full set of armor off of his feet.

She slowly looked over at the door, noticing it now being open, and flashed a somewhat welcoming grin at Lissa and Ricken.

"Well then, he's the new guy huh?" She locked eyes with Ricken, who found himself heavily flustered. He wanted to make a good first impression for everyone here.

"That's right! Ricken, this is Sully. She's one of our best. Oh-," She turned and pointed at the man Sully had thrown across the room moments before, who was currently trying to pull himself up off of the ground. "That's Stahl. He's….well, average. And I mean like, everything about him. He's pretty bland."

"Hey! You know I heard you,right?" Stahl turned, once he finally managed to stand back up, and looked at Lissa with a playfully feigned look of shock. Lissa let out a soft giggle, and rolled her eyes at him. Clearly everyone here seemed to get along well.

Ricken's attention was brought back to Sully, who had walked closer to them and was now hovering over him. He felt his face flush a little, and his arms clutched tightly to his tome. He wasn't very comfortable for having this attention.

"A bit small, isn't he?"

Ricken felt his heart sink at hearing this. He wasn't going to go yelling at her over it, after seeing what she was able to do to someone twice his size, but it still stung being reminded of his height. He tried to hide any sign of offense he took from Sully's words, but he realized he must not have done a very good job of it, after hearing her speak up again.

"Doesn't matter though, what matters is that you pack a tough punch. I'm sure you got a lot of talent with that magic junk if you managed to save Maribelle." Ricken let a small smile cross his face, and he let himself relax a lot more. She was friendly at the very least, if maybe a bit blunt.

"T-thank you." Sully gave him a courteous node before looking back at Stahl. Her expression had completely changed, her voice was rougher and a lot more commanding as she addressed her comrade.

"Alright you little wimp, we're gonna keep at this until you finally land a blow on me." Stahl appeared to be a little out of it, his head half down as he slowly sighed deeply.

"Alright, alright. I hear you."

The two of them both rearmed themselves with training weaponry, and took their stances for sparing. Lissa gently nudged Ricken's shoulder and huffed. "Sully gives Stahl a real hard time, but I think it's secretly because she thinks he doesn't put a lot of effort into his training." Ricken nodded his head a bit in understanding. It sure did seem like Sully cared a lot about strength.

"Well, as you can probably tell, this area is the sparring room. That door to the right, on the other side away from those two, is where we keep all the weapons and dummies that are used for practice."

"Do most of the shepherds live in the barracks?"

Lissa nodded her head at him, slowly walking forward, Ricken hurrying after her. "There are living quarters downstairs, the stairs down are in the dining hall." She began leading him down a small hallway, the noise from Sully and Stahl faded behind him as they walked.

They passed several doors, each one pecking at Ricken's curiosity. "What're in all the rooms we're passing?" Lissa looked back at him, her eyes sparkling with a wee bit of mischief. "Well nothing really. The first one we passed was the Kitchen, and I think one of the others was the Library. Miriel is probably got herself stuffed away in there."

Ricken felt a little disappointed they weren't going to take a peek into the library. He was very study oriented himself, and he often enjoyed reading. He remembered meeting Meriel on occasion in the castle's library.

"Where is everyone else?" Ricken was curious as to wear the Shepherds tactician was, as well as that amazing swordsmen he had seen during the mission to rescue Meribelle.

"Well Vaike is probably wondering about the city, I think he said he was looking for a replacement for his axe. His old one broke...somehow." Ricken couldn't have been for sure, but he swore Lissa appeared to have a small smile on her face when she said that. "Maribelle is at home right now, her family was absolutely worried over her after what happened. Frederick and Chrom are making some preparations for tomorrow's travel. Virion is around here somewhere I'm sure. Robin's probably in the back field, practicing or what not."

Ricken blinked his eyes, slightly overwhelmed by all the names. Of course he already knew Frederick, you couldn't go a day where you'd see Chrom without Frederick hanging around somewhere close by. But besides that, most of those names were all fresh and new to him, overlooking Robin, who he'd only ever met once before.

"Ah- and I can't forget ol grump. Lon'qu, he's amazing with swords. But yeesh, he's got a bad temper." Lissa shrugged her shoulders a bit, still smiling as she lead Ricken to the end of the hall to another metal door, very much resembling the entrance door.

"Wait here for a little bit, okay?" Ricken blinked in confusion at Lissa, and she let out a sigh of discomfort. "I gotta speak with Robin really fast. After that I'll show you down to where you'll be sleeping."

"Alright, I'll...wait here then." Lissa gave him another passive grin before pushing her way outside, leaving the door hanging open. Ricken watched from the open doorway as Lissa ran her way across the open patch of land, and his eyes wandered to her destination. Robin was standing silently at the very edge of the field, her back was to the barracks, so Ricken couldn't get a really good look at her from where he was standing.

However as Lissa approached, she called at to her, and Robin turned to face her. She appeared a little dazed, as if she was startled by Lissa's sudden presence. The two were a little too far away for him to be able to make out what it was they were talking about, though from the way Robin glared at Lissa, he could only imagine Lissa was apologizing for something. It ended shortly, with Robin letting out a sigh and Lissa smiling a little at her, then softly chirping something loudly. She grabbed Robin's arm and started to pull her towards the barracks, Robin's face showing a sign of confusion until she sees Ricken in the doorway.

Once they were close, Lissa let go and did several weird motions with her arms. "Robin, this is Ricken. He's our new member! You guys met once before, right?" Ricken was a little flustered at how forcingly Lissa was in this introduction, but he quickly cleared his throat and politely smiled at Robin.

"Yes. It's good to see you again, ah...we never had a proper introduction." Robin smiled back at him, her only seeing eye gleaming with intrigue and something almost mysterious.

"Heheh, yes I'm glad we might actually have a chance to speak. It would be nice to sit down and get to know one another some time. Comrades work best when their well acquainted after all." She held out one her hands to him, and Ricken shook it shyly. Something about her very much interested him. She seemed very wise in some way, and at the same time he could only imagine she was a powerful combatant.

"Y-yes, that would be good." Robin pulled her hand back, tilting her head a bit as she seemed to study him. It made him very uncomfortable, and he could feel the flush that had spread across his face.

"Well...I should get going, I'm sure Chrom will want to speak a little before we depart in the morning." Ricken blinked, realizing he had been staring back at her the whole time. Robin looked back at Lissa and softly nudged her as she passed by Ricken. "Make sure you're back by nightfall,"

Ricken starred after for a few moments, watching her walk down the hallway and away from him. He was brought back to his sinces as Lissa nudged him a bit, chuckling under her breath as if she had just heard a joke he had missed. "Come on, I'll show you to your bunk."


End file.
